This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Canadian-Iranian ‘blogfather’ released from Evin prison, report says

The Iranian-Canadian “Blogfather,” who inspired a young generation of Persian Internet users, was back in his Tehran home Wednesday after a pardon from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quashed his 17-year prison sentence.

“He was pardoned and released yesterday,” said a message from a family member of Hossein Derakhshan. “We are all relieved and very happy to finally put this chapter behind us.”

Hossein Derakhshan was sentenced by Iran to more than 19 years in prison in 2010. (David Cooper / Toronto Star File photo)

Derakhshan had served part of a 19.5-year sentence that was later reduced. It was one of the severest that Iran has imposed on a blogger.

The relative said that Derakhshan had no immediate plans to return to Canada. He is married and has a home with his wife in Tehran.

Earlier, writing on Google+, Derakhshan said that he had been ordered back to Iran’s grim Evin prison after a furlough, then was told that his sentence had been “forgiven” by Khamenei.

Article Continued Below

“Thank you God. Thank you Ayatollah Khamenei. Thank you to those who supported and prayed for me in those difficult days,” he said.

Derakhshan was initially held in abusive conditions after his arrest, according to human rights advocates, but was later granted furloughs from prison.

News of his release came days before crucial talks between Iran, the U.S. and five other countries to resolve a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program, which Iran hopes will result in the easing of painful sanctions.

Derakhshan was arrested in 2008 after using his Canadian passport to make a trip to Israel two years earlier, saying it was to create understanding between the two countries. But on return to Tehran during the term of virulently anti-Israel President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was accused of “conspiring with hostile governments,” as well as spreading propaganda against the Islamic regime, promoting counter-revolutionary groups, committing blasphemy and creating and managing obscene websites.

Iranian-born Derakhshan, 39, was at the cutting edge of Iran’s youthful blogging revolution and came to Canada in 2000 to study sociology at University of Toronto, gaining Canadian citizenship. He made Internet blogging accessible to Iranians by publishing instructions in Farsi. Millions followed his example, and use of the Internet exploded in the social media.

Though Derakhshan had been critical of the clerical regime while in Canada, he became a notable supporter of Ahmadinejad before his arrest, drawing fire from regime opponents.

The arrest came at a time of tension leading up to Ahmadinejad’s widely disputed re-election, when the authorities were increasingly hostile to the Internet and social media. Canadian resident and web designer Saeed Malekpour was arrested the same year while on a family visit to Tehran, accused of taking part in a Western plot to undermine Iranian morals and initially sentenced to death.

Article Continued Below

“It’s always good news when someone who didn’t have a fair trial, and had so many rights violated is released,” said Gloria Nafziger of Amnesty International Canada, who welcomed reports of Derakhshan’s pardon. “But one could only hope that if a pardon is possible for Hossein it is also possible for Saeed.”

In Ottawa, a spokesman for the department of foreign affairs said that despite reports of Derakhshan’s release “hundreds remain imprisoned in Iran without a shred of due process or transparency. Canada will never forget these people, nor will we forget the hundreds more that expired under the watch of this ruthless regime.”

Derakhshan has not made his future plans public so far. But, said Maryam Nayeb Yazdi of the Persian2English blog for Iranian human rights, as long as he is in Iran, “anything he says may not be of his own free will. He will be under censorship.” It is not known whether the pardon came with conditions attached.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com